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Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that there was no definitive proof that the crown prince was responsible for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, while Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that there was “no smoking gun.” | Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images

Mattis and Pompeo were 'misleading' in Khashoggi briefing, Murphy says

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo misled senators last week in a Senate-only briefing on the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Sen. Chris Murphy asserted on Wednesday, the result of having to tiptoe around President Donald Trump’s refusal to pin blame for the killing on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Murphy, who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee but was kept out of Tuesday’s classified briefing with CIA Director Gina Haspel, argued senators coming out of that briefing with Haspel undercut the administration’s claim that restricting access to the intelligence was necessary.

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In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday, the Connecticut Democrat said that Trump’s “maybe he did, maybe he didn’t” exoneration of Salman, referred to often as MBS, in light of U.S. intelligence reportedly determining with “high confidence” that the crown prince ordered the killing, put Mattis and Pompeo in a squeeze when addressing senators last week.

“I think the secretary of Defense and secretary of State are in a bad spot because the president has given this bear hug to MBS and to the entire Saudi regime, so they are bound to carry out his bizarre policy,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s sort of hard to call this a cover-up given the fact that everybody in that briefing last week knew that Pompeo and Mattis were misleading us, knew there was no way this murder happened without the consent and direction of MBS.”

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Last week, Pompeo told reporters that there was no definitive proof that the crown prince was responsible for Khashoggi’s murder, while Mattis said that there was “no smoking gun.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of Trump, refuted Mattis’ words after Tuesday’s briefing. Instead, he declared, there was a “smoking saw” implicating the crown prince, a reference to reports that Khashoggi was dismembered with a bone saw after he was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey.

Meanwhile, retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that if the crown prince were put on trial he’d be convicted by a jury in “30 minutes.”

The Trump administration’s response to Khashoggi’s murder has incensed lawmakers, who have pushed for greater consequences, aside from existing U.S. sanctions on Saudi officials determined to have been involved in the plot.

Murphy on Wednesday gave Mattis and Pompeo “a little bit of credit” for their delicate dance around Trump’s statements on the matter.

“They were very careful in the words they used in that hearing. They didn’t say that Mohammed bin Salman had nothing to do with it. They said there was no smoking gun. But in the meeting, they clearly left the impression by using that phrase that they did not have evidence from the intelligence services that proved that he did it,” he said. “Again, this is an elite unit that he formed that has been at his direction, and open reporting now tells us that he was talking to them all throughout the day. I think [Pompeo and Mattis] they were very careful in the words that they chose because they knew what the president said only a few days before.”

Another member on the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), argued Wednesday that a “smoking gun” is not required to find the crown prince responsible for Khashoggi’s death and that access to classified intelligence isn’t necessary to prove his culpability.

“From what we know about this murder leaves you with no doubt that the crown prince, at a minimum, knew about it, condoned it and perhaps worse, was actually involved in directing it,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.”

“I don’t need intelligence, I think that you know enough, and the American public knows enough about Saudi Arabia and about this murder to conclude that whether or not we have a smoking gun, there is no way that 17 people that close to that crown prince go to Turkey and murder a guy at a consulate and he not know about and he not be OK with it. Period.”

“It’s not a criminal trial,” Rubio added.

He dodged a question on whether the administration was being “straight” with the public, pointing out that the administration is welcome to its own assessment of the incident. But he warned not to let Salman push the limits of the U.S.

“All alliances have buffers. All alliances have limits. And the crown prince will continue to test the limits of this alliance until the limits are set.”